Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Sunday, August 07, 2005

It has come to pass, no?

The Prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus
Excerpted from the dialogue with Asclepiuson , on the nature of the Cosmos, contained in the Gnostic texts.
"Do you know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of Heaven, or to speak more exactly, in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and work in Heaven are present in the Earth below? In fact it should be said that the whole Cosmos dwells in this our land as in a sanctuary.
And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you.
There will come a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians have honored God with heartfelt piety and service; and all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual. The Gods will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.
And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and worship.
They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man's welfare.
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven; the madman will be thought a brave man, andthe wicked will be esteemed as good.”
Ok. I am officially creeped out now!

Suicidebombings martyrdom apathy despotic regime resigned helplessness of the people the world looking and not doing anything as demonstrators getting crushedThe glorification of Bin ses khara Ladin and his couragous followers

A7eih, you are right Sandmonkey, this is really creepy. Meen Hermes dah we eish 3arafoh el 7agat dih?

The nice thing about prophesy is that it can be changed anytime the people decide to change it. That is the greatest gift that God gave us, the right to free will, to decide between right and wrong, life and death and he has exhorted us to choose LIFE.

There are a few leaders on either side, and the great majority of the people just seem to go along with what they see as the winning side. The dark side has been getting all the press, so the people think that is the side that is winning. That will change, be patient and don't give up hope.

No, I always thought the interesting thing about prophesy is that you can look around in any time in history and say that time represented the prophesy.

Do you know how many people thought that the American Civil war presaged the advent of Revelations "brother against brother". There were many religious groups who came together waiting for the "end of days".

We're still here.

But that also reminds me of the shrewdness of prophets and oracles like the Delphi Oracles who were always well informed and were capable word smiths, creating prophesies that suited the inevitable events.

Lastly, I am reminded that what we see as people writing prophesies for a far off future, were often notes about their contemporary times and what they expected to happen or describing what was happening already. For instance, the writing of revelations when they speak of Babylon being destroyed and all the merchants and men of power who were made rich from it would cry out as it burned. A noted historian once theorized that this was a euphamism for Rome and it's coming doom since it was oppressing the Christians and living a pretty wicked lifestyle under the later Caesars. Keeping in mind that even a few years after Christ was crucified, his followers believed that he would return very soon.

2000 years later, still not here.

But you could certainly look at the Revelation prophesy and try to apply it today to the literal Babylon, since surely, the "merchants" and "men of power" were crying, watching the maker of their dirty money "burn" and disappear "beneath the waves" of armor, JDAMS and khaki clad soldiers.

it's all in perception.

Even if the historical references were true, it is still interesting how history cycles itself and brings us back to events that make the prophesy "true" again.